Brazil retailers ban beef from cleared Amazon area

SAO PAULO, June 12 (Reuters) - Brazil's top three retail groups have decided to ban the purchase of beef originating in deforested areas of the Amazon, the country's supermarkets association (Abras) said on Friday.

The initiative includes Brazil's CBD PCAR4.SA, known for its Pao de Acucar supermarkets, and the local subsidiaries of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and Carrefour SA (CARR.PA).

The decision, taken up in a meeting earlier this week, came after environmental group Greenpeace published a report showing that the beef industry is the largest single driver of Amazon deforestation.

"The retail sector, through Abras, will not proceed with the denounced actions and will react actively," the association said in a statement.

Following Greenpeace's report, the state of Para's prosecutors office recommended Brazil's top retail groups and 72 other buyers of cattle-related products stop buying products from deforested areas.

CBD, Wal-Mart and Carrefour will ban beef purchased from farms accused by the Para state prosecutors office of deforestation and will demand documents from slaughterhouses related to the transit of the cattle, Abras said.

The companies also intend to conduct an independent audit to assure that meat that they buy is not from deforested areas.

In a separate statement, CBD said earlier this week it was banning purchases from 11 meatpackers from areas denounced by the prosecutors office in Para.

"The company is the first to fulfill the prosecutor office's recommendation and, by doing so, reinforces its refusal to any act not in accordance with current law and in a manner potentially harmful to the environment," it said.

Greenpeace's report also accused the Brazilian government, which has pledged to cut deforestation by half in 10 years, of complicity in Amazonian destruction due to its funding of the beef industry. [ID:nN14290980]

Brazil is the world's largest beef exporter and has the largest commercial cattle herd at 200 million head. (Reporting by Inae Riveras; Editing by Christian Wiessner)